New York Daily News

Ramos walks in winner as Met pen stays shaky

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MwalkedILW­AUKEE — AJ Ramos is searching. The reliever threw nine pitches Friday night and just one found the strike zone as he back-to-back batters to force in the winning run in the Mets’ 4-3 loss to the Brewers at Miller Park. With the bases loaded, facing the dangerous Travis Shaw, Ramos sent the ball bouncing to the backstop to give the Brewers the walkoff win. Ramos’ frustratio­n and sense of confusion was obvious as he took the blame for the loss Friday night.

“I haven’t been doing my job, plain and simple. No excuse,” Ramos said. “There is no rhyme or reason. There is not anything going on. I just haven’t been very good. We’re working on it, trying to get better, as of right now I haven’t been doing the job and that’s just how it is.”

That pretty much sums up Friday night and is an indication of some of the bullpen’s issues this season. Ramos isn’t the only culprit. Lefty specialist Jerry Blevins contribute­d to Friday night’s unraveling and has been complicit in the inconsiste­ncies.

Considered the stalwarts of the backend of the bullpen coming into the season, first-year manager Mickey Callaway has to be a little gun shy when calling for them now. But he said he would do it again; he has to. “It’s very similar to when (sluggers Jay) Bruce and (Michael) Conforto were struggling. You have to let the players go do their job. If you start not letting them do their job, they are just sitting down there in the bullpen, you would have two pitchers that never pitch,” Callaway said. “I think that you have to take that same approach you would with a hitter.”

Friday Blevins was brought in to face lefty Christian Yelich, a familiar foe since he started with the Marlins, with one out and one on. He gave up a single to put runners on the corners and lefties are now 7-for-24 against the lefty specialist this season.

Callaway, who had come into the season talking about innovative bullpen usage, has stuck to some pretty convention­al decisions. Instead of using Jeurys Familia or sticking with Blevins to walk Hernan Perez and then face Shaw, Callaway went to Ramos.

Mets fans collective­ly held their breath as Ramos has been walking a tightrope this season.

Familia was up and lightly tossing when there were save chances, but Callaway wanted to use him for more than an inning.

“Cause you still have to pitch another inning even if you come in and score,” Callaway explained.

He also said that he did not like the idea of leaving Blevins in and intentiona­lly walking Perez, because it left very little room for error.

“It was first and third and we thought about walking (Perez) and letting Blevins face Shaw, we just thought the matchup was better Ramos,” Callaway said. “The problem with going ahead and loading the bases and you are trying to make good pitches is that you can walk a guy. If Ramos goes in, he can make tough pitches and make tough pitches to the next guy. He just didn’t get it done.”

Ramos has struggled all season. He has now allowed eight earned runs in his last eight innings pitched. In 20 innings this season, Ramos has walked 14 batters.

Still, Callaway felt he had to go to him. “He’s in our bullpen, he’s got to pitch in situations like that,” Callaway said. “Tonight was just obviously he didn’t have it, he didn’t have anything. It hasn’t been like that, like it was tonight. You got to chalk that up to, man, he couldn’t get the ball over the plate.”

Friday night, Ramos couldn’t find the strike zone and the Mets keep searching for the bullpen depth they thought they came into the season with.

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